I've just had this idea for a chess variant and i wondered what you all think.

It's a pretty basic concept. For the purpose of this variant, the central four squares constitute high ground. If a player can get a knight onto one of these squares, that knight will be considered artillery. This gives that knight the ability to sacrifice itself on any square on the board (as if it was a cannon ball).

I think this would be quite a fun addition 😀

EDIT: But does that mean they can just capture my queen from anywhere? Yes it does. 🙂

Another idea (that could possibly be played in conjunction) is giving bishops the option to 'spread the faith' instead of capturing. Ie, i can capture your knight with my bishop, but instead of doing that, i replace your knight with a knight of my colour and remove the bishop from the board..

In this way i could defend my queen from an artillery sacrifice by simply having the queen defended by a bishop. NxQ ..B(converts)Q

I love the idea of increase the own army (the conversion) like in the Japanese chess 'shogi':

"Captured pieces are retained in hand, and can be brought back into play under the capturing player's control. On any turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, a player may select a piece in hand and place it on the board, The fact that no piece ever goes entirely out of play accounts for the rarity of draws in shogi"

Originally posted by Schlecter
I love the idea of increase the own army (the conversion) like in the Japanese chess 'shogi':

"Captured pieces are retained in hand, and can be brought back into play under the capturing player's control. On any turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, a player may select a piece in hand and place it on the board, The fact that no piece ever goes entirely out of play accounts for the rarity of draws in shogi"

There were a couple of lads who played Shogi from time to time at the Edinburgh club.
(It looked liked Chines Scrabble to me).

They tried to get me interested but when I learnt about the drop piece rule,
If you captured a piece or the other player sacked it you could drop it back
on the board as one of your men, then I knew it was not my game.

Here is a very simplified reason/



White plays 1.Qe8+ Rxe8 2.Rxe8 is not mate because Black can drop the
piece he has just captured back on the board.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
There were a couple of lads who played Shogi from time to time at the Edinburgh club.
(It looked liked Chines Scrabble to me).

They tried to get me interested but when I learnt about the drop piece rule,
If you captured a piece or the other player sacked it you could drop it back
on the board as one of your men, then I knew it was not my game.

H ...[text shortened]... iece he has just captured back on the board.

[fen]4Rqk1/5ppp/8/8/8/8/5PPP/6K1 b - - 0 2[/fen]

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
WOW I'd love to try regular chess with that rule. 😀

Originally posted by Schlecter
The only problem is the color of the chessmen, now we need in the worse case scenario another 32 just to 'drop' them when needed.......... umm maybe just the pawns, each 'resurrected' pawn has to start again in the second (or 7 for black) rank.

Originally posted by Schlecter
The only problem is the color of the chessmen, now we need in the worse case scenario another 32 just to 'drop' them when needed.......... umm maybe just the pawns, each 'resurrected' pawn has to start again in the second (or 7 for black) rank.

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
I've just had this idea for a chess variant and i wondered what you all think.

It's a pretty basic concept. For the purpose of this variant, the central four squares constitute high ground. If a player can get a knight onto one of these squares, that knight will be considered artillery. This gives that knight the ability to sacrifice itself on any squ ...[text shortened]... from an artillery sacrifice by simply having the queen defended by a bishop. NxQ ..B(converts)Q

Originally posted by wolfgang59
Wasn't there an alternate version whereby a win was also possible by "occupying the hill"?
(Pieces on d4,d5,e4,e5)